


A New Day

by tabbytabbytabby



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Birthday, Cooking, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Fluff, Future Fic, Hugs, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Canon, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25098736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabbytabbytabby/pseuds/tabbytabbytabby
Summary: Merlin gets an unexpected visitor on his birthday.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 213





	A New Day

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I would write something fluffy on my birthday since corona has me stuck in the house, and then I woke up and this happened.

Merlin knows he should get out of bed. He needs to take care of himself. That's what all his old friends would say. Gwaine would yank him out himself, while Gwen would look at him in concern. 

But they're not here to do that anymore. They're gone, turned to dust like everyone else he ever loved, like Camelot itself. They have been for a millennia now. 

There's no cause for celebration this year, or any year. Why celebrate growing older when it's just another reminder how alone he is? That he's destined to keep living and going on while everyone else is gone. 

There's a knock at his door but Merlin ignores it. There's no one he's expecting. And certainly not anyone he wants to see today. Not when he's feeling like this. 

Except whoever is at the door doesn't seem to care about that because the knocking grows louder and more insistent. 

Merlin growls in frustration and throws his blankets off before getting out of bed. He stomps towards the door, preparing to tell whoever is on the other side off. It's what they deserve. He starts in on his rant before he even has the door open.

"I don't care who you are, but I'm in no mood. So if you could just…"

His rant falls short when he sees who's standing in front of him. It can't be. He knows it. There's no way. Yet he's somehow looking into blue eyes that he hasn't seen in well over a thousand years, but that he would recognize anywhere. 

"Well don't you look like a sorry state," Arthur says. And God that voice is still familiar too, achingly so. And yet...

"I'm hallucinating," Merlin mumbles.

Arthur raises an eyebrow, "Really, Merlin? Of all the things you could hallucinate and you'd pick me?"

"You're the only thing I'd want to hallucinate," Merlin whispers. 

Merlin expects another retort, or some sarcastic comment. That’s what his Arthur would do. But instead, Arthur frowns, his face softening in a way Merlin rarely saw except on the smallest of occasions, and usually only when they were alone.

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” Arthur says.

Merlin swallows, his throat going dry. “Oh only a thousand or so years,” Merlin says, as if he hasn’t kept track of each day that has passed. Never letting himself forget. “But that would be if you were really here, which I’m still not certain you are.”

“How can I convince you?” Arthur asks him.

Merlin’s honestly not sure. Part of him is afraid to be convinced. What is Arthur truly is standing here in front of him? And he’s wasted time having this ridiculous argument when he could be… what, he doesn’t know. But something with more meaning. 

“If you’re Arthur,” Merlin says. “How are you here? And why now? Why after I spent centuries waiting for you to come back. I lived wars and plagues and famines, and each time I thought, ‘this has to be it’ and yet, you never came. So why should I believe that you’re suddenly here now on some unimportant day?”

“Because it’s not unimportant,” Arthur says. “And you need me.”

Merlin gives a bitter laugh, “I’ve _needed_ you for years.”

“I know,” Arthur says softly. He steps forward and crowds into Merlin’s space until Merlin steps back and Arthur can come inside. He kicks the door shut behind him and walks towards Merlin, closer this time, as if he’s expecting him to bolt. Merlin has considered it. This is feeling less and less like a hallucination. What kind of hallucination can close a door? Or radiate so much warmth when it stands closer. And touching…

Merlin has to close his eyes at the feeling of Arthur’s hand on his cheek. His mind is screaming at him to be careful, to not get his hopes up, but his heart is a different matter. 

“I’m sorry,” Arthur says. “I’m sorry I made you wait so long, Merlin.”

Merlin laughs wetly, “Yeah well, you always did do things on your own time.”

“I’ll never keep you waiting again,” Arthur tells him. Merlin wants to believe him. He wants to believe this is real and he can have Arthur here with him. But he’s lived how long enough to know how cruel the world can be. And yet…

“Promise?”

There’s a smile in Arthur’s voice when he replies, “Yes Merlin, I promise.”

Merlin opens his eyes, needing to see that smile for himself. That smile that he has been aching to see for centuries. It’s that smile that breaks him.

Merlin throws his arms around Arthur’s waist and buries his face in his shirt, right over his heart. The steading thumping beneath his ear a sign of life. And maybe that’s all he needed to know this is real. Tears sting at his eyes, but he makes no move to wipe them away. He lets them fall. 

“It is you,” he whispers. “You’re alive.”

“I am,” Arthur says, hugging Merlin back just as tightly. “I’m truly here, Merlin.”

“But how? Did you just get back or? I don’t understand.”

“It’s a long story,” Arthur says.

“We have time,” Merlin says. His own words fill him with a sense of unease. He pulls back to look at Arthur. “Don’t we?”

“Yes, Merlin,” Arthur tells him. “We have time. Though I was hoping…”

“What?”

“We could have breakfast,” Arthur says. “I haven’t eaten yet, and I’m starving.”

Merlin laughs, his first real laugh in years. “I see that hasn’t changed.”

“I don’t know what you’re implying,” Arthur says, smiling up at him.

“I’m sure you don’t.” Merlin sighs and reluctantly pulls back. “Well I guess I should make sure you’re fed, then. Can’t have you withering away.”

Truthfully, Merlin is grateful for the distraction. It’ll give him some time to pull himself together. Right now he feels far too exposed, as if his emotions are spilling out of every pore. 

“I can help,” Arthur offers.

Merlin shoots him a doubtful look, “You? Cook?”

“I do know how to cook, Merlin,” Arthur says. As if to prove a point he starts looking through the fridge, grabbing the eggs, bacon, milk, and cheese and tossing them on the counter. It’s a little surreal watching Arthur move around the kitchen like he belongs here. To Merlin, he does. Arthur will always belong at his side. 

“When did you learn to cook?” Merlin asks him, content to watch him work for a moment. Even if this change in dynamic is a little strange.

“When I was five? Six? My mum taught me,” Arthur shrugs. He starts cracking eggs into a bowl, before adding milk and some salt and pepper. He does it with such ease, as if he’s done if hundreds of times before.

“Your mum? She’s here? Or is it…?”

“It’s her,” Arthur tells him. “It’s really her, Merlin. She’s here. I probably scared her to death when I started crying and hugging her one night after I remembered.”

“So you’ve, what? Been living a normal life?” Merlin asks. He moves closer, leaning against the counter next to the stove.

“I have,” Arthur says. He turns on a burner and pours his eggs mixture onto the pan, before adding bacon to another. He looks at Merlin with a sad smile. “I started looking for you as soon as I remembered, Merlin. I knew you had to be out here somewhere and that… well I guess I hoped you needed to see me as much as I needed to see you.”

Merlin reaches out and rests a hand on Arthur’s shoulder, “I did. I’m glad you found me Arthur. I…” Merlin trails off and clears his throat, trying to keep a handle on the emotions threatening to rise to the surface again. “I missed you.”

“And here I thought you’d be happy to have some peace without me bossing you around,” Arthur says.

“Never,” Merlin says.

“So you’re saying I _can_ boss you around?” Arthur teases.

Merlin laughs and shoves his shoulder, “You can try, but don’t think I’m going to start doing everything you ask me just because you’re back.”

“Merlin, you didn’t do half of what I asked you before,” Arthur reminds him.

Merlin shrugs, “That’s because most of it was pointless. You just wanted to aggravate me.”

“Shut up, Merlin.”

“Is it strange that I even missed you saying that?”

“Probably,” Arthur says. “Flip the bacon, will you?”

They eat their breakfast and then move into the living room, where Arthur tells Merlin bits and pieces about his life. As far as he’s aware, he was born in London. His parents are still his parents, though Uther is a little kinder now. Arthur thinks it’s because of his mother. Morgana is here as well, though Arthur isn’t sure if she remembers or not. 

He regained his memories about a year ago. He suffered a head injury playing football, and when he woke up in the hospital he kept getting flashes of his life in Camelot. It wasn’t until his birthday that he fully remembered.

“I’m not sure why,” Arthur says. “But suddenly they were all there. It was a bit of a shock, you know? Having all these memories from my life in Camelot and now. After I got over it, my first thought was of you.”

“Really? Why me? Why not…”

“You were always important to me, Merlin,” Arthur tells him. “In more ways than I could ever understand back in Camelot. But I do now.”

Merlin has a feeling about what Arthur is implying, but he’s afraid of being wrong. He’s had centuries to think about what exactly his feelings for Arthur were. It wasn’t hard to understand that he loved him. He always knew that, in a way.

Arthur is his destiny, but he’s also the love of Merlin’s life. 

“What do you…?”

“I love you,” Arthur cuts in. “I’m in love with you.”

“You don’t know me,” Merlin tells him. “I’m not the same as I was back then, Arthur.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Arthur says. He takes Merlin’s face in his hands and Merlin holds his breath. “I loved you then, and I love you now. And I will spend the rest of our lives getting to know you and falling more in love with you, if you’ll have me.”

“Of course I will, you prat,” Merlin says. “I love you too.”

Kissing Arthur is like learning to breathe again. It’s like every inch of him is being taken apart and re-written with each press of his lips or touch of his hands. This morning Merlin ever would have believed he could have this, but Arthur is here, real and alive in his arms. He’s never going to let go. Not without a fight.

“Hey Merlin?” Arthur murmurs against his lips.

“Yeah?”

“Happy Birthday.”

Merlin smiles and snuggles closer. “It is now.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos/comments make my day 💜  
> You can find me [here on tumblr](http://tabbytabbytabby.tumblr.com/)


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